Update from our Summer Big Door Knock 2023 – Royston
Colleagues from across settle and members of our Board took part in our Summer Big Door Knock which took place in August in the Royston neighbourhood and surrounding villages.
The Big Door Knock is carried out in a different neighbourhood every few months to find out how residents in that area are doing, what they think of the services we are providing and if we can improve in any areas.
We choose the Royston area following lower scores around the quality of the neighbourhood which were captured through the surveys we carry out with residents as part of our Tenant Satisfaction Measures. We wanted to understand how residents felt about their neighbourhood and also take the opportunity to check what impact the rise of the cost of living was having on them. We visited 805 households and spoke to 234 residents.
Highlights
- Most residents said they liked how quiet the neighbourhood, that the people are friendly, and they have good neighbours. Residents also mentioned that they lived in a nice area.
- Half of the residents we spoke to mentioned they use their green spaces and communal areas regularly
- The majority of residents reported feeling safe in the area, with 204 giving a score of voting between 8 and 10, with 10 being the highest number.
Improvements
The main suggestions for improvements were around maintenance in communal areas and increased grounds maintenance. A third of residents said they are willing to get involved in helping to make improvements.
Other things included parking, amenities, and better lighting. These areas are the responsibilities of other local organisations, and we remain committed to working with them to help ensure that Royston remains a great place to live.
Priorities were slightly different between Royston and the villages, with people living in villages putting more importance on improving amenities, public transport and general infrastructure while parking was the overwhelming priority for residents living in Royston.
Using this feedback
We will use this feedback to influence the work and support we provide in the Royston neighbourhood. We have also used feedback collected from previous Big Door Knocks to help shape the homes and neighbourhood
standards which we have recently published on our website.
Continued impact of rising costs
We also asked residents to give us a rating on the impact of the rise in the cost of living on their lives. 103 residents said they were impacted, citing rising household and energy bills as the biggest concerns, followed by food costs and financial constraints.
We will continue to review the support we provide and do all we can to reflect needs of residents.
If you are struggling to pay your rent, energy or other costs or would like more information on how to access help – please let us know. You can fill in our help with living costs form or find more information on our cost of living page on our website.
There is also a free and easy to use budgeting and benefits calculator on our website which can help you to see how much benefit you may be entitled to.
We’d like to hear from you
If you would like to share your views on our services – you can tell us what we could do better or when we’ve done something well.
More information about our Big Door Knocks is available in our How we collect feedback section.
